Page 5 of Shattered Darkness
“How long have you been working here?” I’m prompted to ask by my magic.
“I just arrived this morning,” he replies, “I have to say I’m not liking it so far. All the security team is like damn robots; I know it’s a serious job and everything, but there’s usually a fair amount of camaraderie and joking around usually, or at least there have been on the other assignments I’ve had. There is none of that; it’s all by the book, completely focused and shit.” His eyes widen when he finishes his rant, and he adds, “Shit, sorry, I shouldn’t have unloaded all of that on you.”
“It’s okay,” Erin replies for all of us, as our original opinion of him quickly changes.
“If I were you, I’d leave as quickly as possible and request a different assignment if you can,” I tell him and then smile as once again my magic whispers to me, “I heard that Black Onyx had some jobs going. That’s bound to be more fun than here because they’re all warriors. I’m sure they get up to all sorts of amusing trouble.”
His eyes light up, “Yeah, that’s a good idea. I have a contact there actually. I’ll give him a call. Thanks.”
“No problem,” I smile, knowing that I’ve done the right thing and that Black Onyx is where he’s supposed to be.
“Before I go, you should know that the headmaster is saying that you’re difficult to work with and are becoming a problem. I overheard them mention that all three of you were dangerous. I just thought you should know because you don’t seem dangerous to me,” he shrugs as he turns on his heel, no doubt to go and get in contact with his friend at Black Onyx.
“What the fuck is going on?” Coles hisses as we quickly make our way down the corridor.
“I have no idea, but wait until we get to my room. I can put a shield around it,” Erin replies.
“Good thinking, it somehow doesn’t feel safe enough to talk freely anymore,” I mutter.
The others nod in agreement, neither of them wanting to reply since they both feel the same way that I do. Finally, we get to Erin’s rooms that she shares with her guys. They’re set out exactly like Cole’s and mine, and we’re here enough that the room is incredibly familiar to me.
Cole and I don’t say anything as we wait for Erin to do her thing and watch as the red and gold magic swirls in the air as she weaves an intricate shield and sets around the room, making sure that there are no gaps and that it is completely soundproofed.
“Okay, all done.” She grins and then adds, “You know it still fascinates me that I can do that.”
“I know what you mean. Sometimes, I just have to take a step back and look at where I was and how far I’ve come. I was so fucking alone, and now look at me; I’m surrounded by my chosen family and people I love,” I reply, getting a bit more emotional than I intended.
“Aww, group hug!” Cole practically yells and then jumps on us both, squeezing us tightly.
“Alright, enough of this mushy shit,” Erin grins as we all separate, “should we tell the guys about what happened now?”
“I think we should wait; we’ve only got an hour until they’re here for lunch, well, my room, and I’m now starting to think that it’s very unlikely that they’re not keeping an eye on the guys and listening into them,” I reply.
“Yeah, I agree. I also think that we need to get to the bottom of what’s going on as quickly as possible because what that guard said suggests that they’re trying to make people fear us,” Erin adds.
Cole nods as he walks over to Erin’s small kitchen area and starts making drinks for us all, “I don’t know what they’re hoping to achieve though. Why make them hate us?”
“I have no idea, and that’s what worries me,” I reply.
“They’ve got some pretty good books in the library here on the history of the Centres. Maybe that’s where we start?” Erin suggests, “Maybe we look at their pasts to try and understand our present.”
“That’s a really good idea,” Cole replies, and then frowns, “would checking them out put some suspicion on us like they’ll know that we’re onto them?”
I shake my head as I accept the drink he’s offering me, “No, I don’t think so. I mean, we’re Centres. I think it would be understandable that we’d want to know more about our history.”
“Good point,” he replies and then looks at the clock on the wall, “we’ve got quite a while before the guys get here. Do you want to go and get some of the books now? At least it will give us something to do, and we might even be able to have some answers ready for them.”
Erin shrugs as she finishes gulping down her drink, and I do the same, “It beats sitting around here.”
“I’ve never been good at staying still,” I add with a smile and stand up. “Erin, have you got a bag that we can carry them in? Even though it would be expected that we want to know about our history, we don’t want to be too obvious and gain attention that we don’t want right now.”
“Yeah, one second,” she replies.
It’s not long until she’s back with a backpack, and we’re heading out of the door and through the quiet hallways. I suppose, in a way, it’s a blessing that we didn’t have a teacher today. It gave us a chance to do some actual research and find out a bit more about just how differently the teachers are behaving. We know that we need to be cautious now. We know that we need to be cautious now, even more cautious than we, or at least I, was already being.
Thanks to it being during lesson times still, the library is empty. There’s not even a librarian on duty, which is odd since the doors are unlocked, and if there’s not someone here, then they usually lock them.
“They’re this way,” Cole says as he leads us through the tall shelves.